Vanilla Almond Cupcakes with Blackberry Buttercream

I was feeling fruity the other day. Feeling fruity and vanilla-y and almond-y. Normally I’d either do vanilla cupcakes or almond cupcakes, but not this time. No, I wanted both. And this light and delicate cake provided just that. Flecks of almond meal and vanilla bean, spiked with almond extract, and topped with a bright blackberry buttercream, well, I don’t have to tell you that these were delicious.

A perfect choice for a dinner with friends – perfect because, well, our friend’s daughter joined us for dinner, and her favorite color just happens to be purple. Let’s just say that she wouldn’t give in until she got her purple cupcake BEFORE dinner, where she proceeded to dive in and lick every bit of the purple frosting off of the cupcake before she was satisfied.

And unlike some cupcakes I’ve made, these beauties are naturally purple… or purply-pink, to be precise.

They almost became a post for the failed-cupcake-hall-of-fame. See, I first added a bit of tofutti cream cheese to the frosting as I didn’t want it too sweet. I’ve done it before with chocolate buttercream, and the other flavors in the frosting always overpowered any weirdness lingering from the tofutti (I admit, it is not a substitute for the real thing). But in this case, I took a lick and realized something was horribly wrong. Took a finger-full to Taylor too just to confirm my suspicions. He nailed it – the frosting tasted like berry flavored yogurt, a few too many days past it’s sell-by date. Funny how non-dairy cream cheese can give an overpoweringly dairy-like taste to an otherwise good frosting. In to the trash it went.

Take 2: much better. No cream cheese. Fresh blackberries, pureed and strained. Half a vanilla bean, scraped off the pod and beautifully speckling the violet fluff. Just a hint of fragrant almond. And to top it all off – proof that my spiffy new flower molds DO work with marzipan (not quite as well, marzipan is extremely fragile and doesn’t hold the delicate shape as well), but it was the perfect topping on the perfect cupcake.

I don’t think I am the only one to think that the timing of these couldn’t be any better – can you say, perfect mothers’ day treat? I know my mom in particular would swoon over these (or anything almond for that matter – like mother like daughter!). If only I could figure out how to ship cupcakes to her, I would send her a box of these in an instant.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large bowl, sift together flour, almond meal, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add sugar and mix. Whisk together oil, coconut milk, vanilla bean, and almond extract. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients. Mix until relatively smooth. Fill cupcake liners with a scant 1/4 cup of batter (should be just under 2/3 of the way full). Bake for 20-22 minutes or until golden, and toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Transfer to cooling rack and allow to cool completely.

For frosting, cream butter in electric mixer for 1-2 minutes until fluffy. Slowly add 1 cup sugar and beat until smooth. Add blackberry puree and mix until combined. Add remaining confectioners’ sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, and beat until well incorporated. Add vanilla bean and extract and mix at medium-high speed until light and fluffy (2-3 minutes). Pipe or spread onto cooled cupcakes. Top with a marzipan flower, if desired.

These are lovely! I’d like to know about the brown sugar, but I’m also wondering if you can tell me about the flower molds. I love the look of that little flower! Can you tell me the name of the mold, who makes it or where you bought it? Thanks so much!
Tracey

Whoops – my mistake – there is no brown sugar in this recipe. It’s the same basic cupcake base as the strawberry lemon cupcakes, so I copied the recipe. Took it out of the ingredients but forgot about the directions.

OMG Almond, vanilla, berries, yes like mother like daughter!
I too wish you could mail these to me for Mother’s Day.
Or deliver them in person….
Guess I will just have to wait until you are here in June to savor these beauties.

I tried these out today and they are yummy! My frosting did not get as purple or dense as yours. I couldn’t get fresh blackberries so I strained some blackberry pastry filling. I am sure that is why the color and texture varied. I also did the first batch with only 1/4 cup per cake. They got really small so I filled the other ones up to 3/4 full. That batch got much prettier.

I was so excited to make these for a picnic on Memorial Day. They all fell. I have made hundreds of cupcakes but don’t know what happened here. I did notice that they didn’t call for eggs. Were they left out on purpose.

Sorry to hear that. This is based on a vegan cupcake recipe, it’s meant to be eggless. If they fell, it could be any number of things, including altitude, oven temperature, overbeating, taking them out of the oven too early… but not the lack of eggs. Hopefully your next batch will turn out better. :)

Thanks for the reply Lindsay. I went ahead and took them to the BBQ. Know one knew the fell. I just put a large, fresh blackberry in the sink hole and topped it off with the buttercream. Everyone loved the flavor! Sorry, I didn’t know they were vegan. Not to worry, I will try again.

These sound wonderful, Lindsay. We have wild blackberries growing at the edge of our yard and I’m going to print and save this recipe for when they get ripe later this summer. Actually, I may not be able to wait that long :)

Oh my gosh, these look so wonderful… I have been venturing into the world of baking the past couple of weeks, but so far, no more than tweaking some box mixes. I think this is worthy of being my first delve into the homemade world!! Mmmmmm…thanks so much!

My husband is obsessed with marzipan so I made these without the blackberry puree so that they would just have the almond flavor. They came out great except that the cupcakes were really crumbly and fell apart when we took them out of the wrappers and kind of became a cake and frosting crumble that would be best eaten with a spoon! Any idea what I did wrong? I would assume they weren’t cooked long enough, but I left them in probably five minutes longer than the recipe instructed. Great recipe, thanks!

These cupcakes look so pretty, the frosting swirls are amazing. I’m sure that these are very tasty, too. I’ve featured this recipe on my blog, hoping that you don’t mind, but if you do, please contact me and I’ll remove it. All the best.

I decided to follow this recipe for my cupcakes as i do not like eggs and i must say i was not disappointed. My milk (i used dairy milk) didn’t curdle even after adding a few drops of lemon but it turned out just perfect. I was happy being a novice it worked for me.

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Welcome to Love & Olive Oil, the culinary adventures of Lindsay and Taylor. We're all about food that is approachable but still impressive, unique and creative yet still true to its culinary roots. (More...)